McCaysville flood cleanup sparks urgent call for supplies

I want to turn our attention back to McKaysville, where, as we know, the floodwaters have receded, but the cleanup is far from over. And now there's a renewed call for supplies. Fox 5 Storm Team meteorologist Alex Forbes joins us now live from McKaysville. And Alex, obviously, people need to, these people there need help, especially after the second time in just a couple of months where they had flooding come through. Tell us about how people are helping and what supplies they do need up there. Yeah, Tyler, that's right. So we're here actually at one of the pickup sites. The supplies are being dropped off in a couple of different locations here in McKaysville. And then the residents are able to come get what they need. I saw firsthand myself somebody coming to get a bottle of water and some food. And so yes, all of this beginning to make it out the door. You can see the pallets of water here, but you've also got a lot of cleaning supplies. And that's one of the things that they do really need here in McKaysville. So I want to show you just kind of off in the distance there. You see pallets of paper towels. You see some of the The scrunchies, you see Clorox wipes, things like that that you need to clean up after a flood, including some of the... bottled bleach and whatnot. So that's the types of things that they are collecting here. Within the last 20 minutes or so, we met up with the Blairsville Chamber of Commerce, Blairsville Union County. They brought a whole bunch of supplies that people donated throughout the last couple of days just in the next county over, and we were offloading that into one of the vacant buildings here in McKaysville that they're using for kind of a staging area right now. They were bringing everything from pet food to the bottled water to snacks and things you need for everyday life. In a city that does not have power and is limited on the water situation right now, McKaysville and a boil water advisory. So we've got a lot of people here and somebody I want to bring in, Diane Turner from the Southern Baptist Convention. Diane, thanks for joining us here live on Fox Local. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing today here in McKaysville? All right, we just got here about lunchtime. We are beginning to canvass the neighborhoods and if people need help, there's a number that they can call. And talk to one of our representatives and we will go out, assess their situation and send out a crew if they can help. And you talk about the help. What kind of things can you guys provide and will be providing here over the next couple of days? During the next few days we're going to be helping with tree cutting. And with what we call mud out or flood response, we will help people get things out of their homes. We will help them to move appliances and get carpet out. Black mold is a real problem when you have flood water. All right, well, we wish you guys all the best. And thank you for helping up here, Diane Turner, with the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief. Tyler, so we have been talking a lot about McCaysville over the last couple of days. We are going to be continuing to talk about it because the situation here is far from over. Well, and so, Alex, I saw an email you had sent into the newsroom. I think it was over the weekend. You had mentioned the need for supplies up in McCaysville on Good Day Atlanta, and viewers reacted to that. Can you tell us a little bit about that? They did. I got a couple of pictures of, called on Good Day Atlanta for supplies to be delivered up here and they went to the local Costco, Home Depot, Walmart, collected what they needed and made the delivery here. So if you ever think to yourself, oh, you know, somebody else is going to do it. Well, those people are getting the same message that you are. So maybe it could be you helping provide supplies that are still needed up here in McCaysville. And just one final question for people who want to help is really the best way going to be donations and sending things their way up to the Georgia Tennessee border or can folks come up there to volunteer? Yes, a volunteer is very much a thing here. In fact, the check-in spot is just behind us. Fully understand that some people aren't in the financial situation to provide donations, but there are a ton of people volunteering their time. And I heard somebody here who was a volunteer say that they dealt with the flood many years ago, and they said they would have gotten nowhere without the volunteers. So if you have the availability, this is the place to be here over the next couple of days. Likewise, monetary donations, the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce is accepting those if you're able to help out in that way. Hopefully, people who are watching can be able to help out. Again, something as small as a case of water can go a long way to help people up there. Alex Forbes, I appreciate your time and joining us this afternoon to break all of this down. And I understand we'll be able to hear from some more people up there in the coming hour. Alex Forbes, live in McKaysville. Alex, thank you. And I just want to tell you about how the Red Cross is helping out also up in McCaysville. They have volunteers in the area providing help to impacted families. You're looking at some pictures that we have received. These photos are from some of them on the ground in Fannin County where the organization has set up a shelter. It's at the Fannin County Recreation Department on Winding Drive in Blue Ridge. Let's put up some of the details about where you can go. It's on your screen right now. So it's located at the Fannin County Recreation Department. It is currently open and available to flood-impacted individuals and families who need assistance. Also to help out, U-Haul is offering 30 days of free self-storage and portable container rentals across 14 North Georgia facilities.